How Partisanship Affected Public Reaction to Potential Treatments for COVID‐19

• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Author: Thomas L. Brunell,Sarah P. Maxwell
• Date: 01 December 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/wmh3.367

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doi: 10.1002/wmh3.367

© 2020 Policy Studies Organization

How Partisanship Affected Public Reaction to Potential

Treatments for COVID‐19

Thomas L. Brunell and Sarah P. Maxwell

President Trump mentioned the potential antiviral benefits of hydroxychloroquine as the COVID‐19

crisis became evident in the United States. Politics and mass media in the United States have been

undergoing a process of partisan polarization over the last 20–30 years. While partisanship has long

affected reactions toward news or information, particularly when it comes from an elected official, the

situation appears to be worsening in American politics. Even a search for potential cures or useful

medication in the face of a public health crisis is hampered by partisanship and polarization.

KEY WORDS: COVID‐19, political polarization, public health

In this short commentary, we examine the reaction among the public and the

mass media to President Trump's early assertions that a possible treatment for

COVID‐19 existed. Objectively, one would expect the public, in the face of a crisis

like this, to respond positively to the news that there may be an effective drug

against the virus. However, this was not the response. In fact, there were a slew of

stories that were highly suspicious of the president's claim. Of course, over the last

three years, the public has been conditioned to not trust what President Trump says

given his proclivity toward misinformation, so some amount of disbelief is war-

ranted. There were many stories accusing the president of spreading false hope on

an unproven or even dangerous drug in the media. Opponents of the president

almost instantly were suspicious of the touted drug—this comports with the pre-

vious research (Nicholson, 2012)showing that out‐party cues are far more

important than in‐party cues. In reaction, opponents of the cue‐givers become

immediately suspicious, while supporters of the cue giver show significantly less

effect from the cue.

Modern American politics are characterized by partisan polarization—where

the ideological distance between the two parties is significantly higher than in the

recent past (Abramowitz, 2010; McCarty, 2019). Elected officials have steadily been

undergoing the process of polarization for several decades. There is no disputing

the fact that political elites are polarized; however, there is some disagreement

among scholars about the extent to which this polarization extends to the mass

public (Abramowitz & Saunders, 2008; Fiorina, Abrams, & Pope, 2006). The media,

including social media, add fuel to the fire by positioning themselves on either side

of the issue. By extension, the media's political agenda emboldens the public to